The Cult of Maponus or Mabon
The name of the stone strongly suggests that this site was a centre of the cult of the Celtic god Mabon or Maponus. He is said to have been the divine patron of the Kingdom of Rheged. Mabon may have been a god of fertility: the Romans made him a British Apollo. Tolstoy sees Merlin as a chief druid carrying out ceremonies at the Clochmabenstane.
Sometime during the seventh century, an unknown monk in the Monastery at Ravenna on the Adriatic (eastern) coast of Italy compiled a list of all the towns and road-stations throughout the Roman Empire; this important historical document has since become known as the Ravenna Cosmography and it lists a 'Locus Maponi' which has been tentatively identified with the Lochmaben stone site.
Read more about this topic: Lochmaben Stone
Famous quotes containing the word cult:
“Look at this poet William Carlos Williams: he is primitive and native, and his roots are in raw forest and violent places; he is word-sick and place-crazy. He admires strength, but for what? Violence! This is the cult of the frontier mind.”
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